PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ARTICLES ASSIGNMENT

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POLS 131 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ARTICLES ASSIGNMENT—Worth 50 points Due at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, November 2     This assignment involves analyzing and comparing 2 recent news articles dealing with one of the 2020 Presidential candidates—Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) or President Donald Trump (R).   In your paper, you will address the questions listed below (750 words, double-spaced, standard 1 inch margins and 10 or 12 point font)—you must include links to the articles with the paper.  The articles should be no older than August 1, 2020.   Articles published before this date are not acceptable for this assignment.  As noted in the syllabus, NO LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED   The two articles must be from two SEPARATE legitimate news sources.  Please see the list of acceptable sources.  If you use a source that’s not listed here, you should check with the instructor to ensure it’s acceptable for this assignment.      Your articles must be cited on a separate “Works Cited” page.    Links to both of your articles MUST be included.    The Grading Rubric:   1.  Identify TWO issues that the candidate has taken a position on, and explain her/his position on those issues: 5 points.   5 points— Identified two issues, and fully explained candidate’s positions   2.  Please give your opinion on ONE of the issues you identified in #2: 5 points.   Do you agree or disagree with the candidate’s position on each of the two issues? Explain.   5 points—Identified your opinion on the issue, and explained it fully.   3.  Give your overall impression of this candidate: 5 points.  Do you support him for president? Why or why not?  Must offer two reasons.  Explain.   5 points—Fully explained why you support or do not support the candidates; two reasons   4.  Evaluation of the two articles: 5 points.  What do you think about the articles? Is either article (if it is a straight news piece) biased in any way? If it’s an opinion piece, did the author clearly explain her or his opinions? You are not giving your opinion about the topic of the article, but whether you think the author was effective in making her or his point or explaining the issue.  Please give your honest evaluation of both articles (not the topic).     5 points—Meets this criterion fully—gave opinion on both articles (not the topic).   5.  Writing standards: 3 points Have you followed proper standards of grammar, spelling and punctuation? Are your sentences properly constructed? Is the paper long enough? Did you construct your essay using proper paragraph structure? Did you capitalize proper names (Democratic or Republican Party, etc) and refer to famous people by their last name only (Trump, not Donald) after the first reference to the person? Is this assignment double-spaced and formatted with a standard font and margins? Did you break new ideas into new paragraphs?   3—Meets this criterion fully—no careless errors; or paper is around 750 words in length or three full pages.   6. Documentation: 2 points 2—The articles are from two separate legitimate news sources, with Works Cited page   An essay will not be graded if the instructor is unable to determine the sources of the articles.     Works Cited (required)   Please include a separate sources cited page at the end of the essay, with information on: Author of the article, if known Source of the article Title of the article Date of the article Web URL     Format of Paper: Paper must be typewritten, double-spaced, using standard margins and fonts.  Any direct information from the articles must be cited using a parenthetical (in parentheses) citation method.  This should be used for direct quotes, statistics, or any other information that is not your own opinion.  Cite the article this way: (Author or Source name, date).     Acceptable sources: The articles must be from two SEPARATE news sources—newspapers or weekly newsmagazines.  You cannot use two articles from the same source. For example, if one of your sources is the Associated Press, your second article must be from another news organization, even if you use different websites for the assignment. The news sources must be independent organizations, not part of the government, an interest group, political party or campaign, or any other partisan organization.  Press releases or other information from the website of a candidate or official are not acceptable for this assignment, even if they come from one of the acceptable sources.  Also, transcripts of interviews are not acceptable for this assignment. Please restrict your essay to the two articles—no other materials should be used.  I am more Liberal then Conservative